Friday, June 1, 2007

June Viewing Log (2007)

It's a little ironic for this to be the first film to review in this thread. I can only imagine how much more enjoyable it would have been watching it high. A stoner comedy much like an updated version of Cheech and Chong, Harold and Kumar is delightfully stupid and never takes itself too seriously. I tend to usually avoid a lot of these silly modern day comedies on the basis that many of them follow a smiliar hokey premise and come of as being inane instead of funny. Or maybe I've become too jaded as a filmgoer to appreciate an inconsequenital comedy once in a while.

Nevertheless, the film did manage to make me laugh on more than one occassion (especially the Anthony Anderson cameo) but I also found myself rolling my eyes more than I would have liked. The Hang glider sequence anyone? There's also a scene where our two protagonists encounter a Cheetah which can only be described as bizarre. The running gag does become slightly redundant as the two buddies stumble from one misadventure to the next and by the end it runs out of steam. A decent comedy, but I'd never watch it again unless I decided to smoke up as a pre-requisite.

03/06: The Fountain (Aronofsky, 2006) - 9.5

Not many films have been as emotionally gut-wrenching or visually stunning as Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain.

Despite the great performance by Ryan Gosling who received a lot of press last year for his realistic portrayal of a drug addict middle school history teacher, the film in itself felt slightly hollow and innocuous. It made the mistake of confusing over-sentimentality with subltely which resulted in more indifference rather than poignancy. Nevertheless, it is commendable for portraying such a life-like respresentation of drug addiction without resorting to the typical spiral downfall or hokey sunshine ending of becoming clean through positive influenes. Far from an inspirational story, the film takes on a more slice-of-life approach towards the personal struggle of having a drug problem in the rawest form. Gosling's performance actually overshadows the weak script which tends to veer into overindulgent territory. Half Nelson is a mixed bag that relies considerably too much on its performances in order to keep the story afloat, leaving much to be desired.

6/10

11/06: Mean Girls (2004)

So, um, Mean Girls was actually really good. One of the better representations of high school life that I have seen. One of my lecture halls was used in the film which was cool. Oh, Lohan and McAdams are also really hot. 8/10

12/06: The Girl Next Door (Greenfield, 2004) - 4

13/06: Wedding Crashers (Dobkin, 2005)

Put me in the camp that found the first half of this film to be a riot of laughs whilst finding the second half to be rather disappointing. Wilson and Vaughn play two ladies men who specialize in crashing weddings in order to get laid. They both have rare comedic duo chemistry (reminding me of a younger and hipper Jack Lemmon and Walter Matheau) playing off each other’s brand of humor which is very effective. Their contrasting personalities with Wilson being the softer type and Vaughn the more rowdy, gives their relationship an even more added hilarity. The dialogue seems takes on an improvisational effect with Vaughn and Wilson acting in an adlib fashion which is very amusing. Unfortunately, what initially started out as one the best comedies in recent memory turns sour once the second half of the film rolls around. The spark and crackle of Wilson and Vaughn’s relationship loses much of its potency as it is replaced by useless plot devices as a cheap shot to draw laughs which come off as more annoying than funny. If the filmmakers had kept to the spirit found in the beginning, Wedding Crashers may have turned out to be a lot more worthwhile. 6/10

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About Me

Welcome to my blog! As an introverted amateur film critic, I'm currently living in my parent's basement and forget what sunlight is. Feel free to leave comments on my reviews. I greatly value your criticism and it's a great way to grow as an aspiring writer.